Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion indigenous to the Indian subcontinent that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha, meaning “the awakened one”. The Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end their suffering (dukkha) through the elimination of ignorance (avidyā) by way of understanding and the seeing of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda) and the elimination of craving (taṇhā), and thus the attainment of the cessation of all suffering, known as the sublime state of nirvāņa.

Two major branches of Buddhism are generally recognized: Theravada (“The School of the Elders”) and Mahayana (“The Great Vehicle”). Theravada has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar etc.). Mahayana is found throughout East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan etc.) and includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, and Tiantai (Tendai). In some classifications, Vajrayana—practiced mainly in Tibet and Mongolia, and adjacent parts of China and Russia—is recognized as a third branch, while others classify it as a part of Mahayana.

While Buddhism remains most popular within Asia, both branches are now found throughout the world. Estimates of Buddhists worldwide vary significantly depending on the way Buddhist adherence is defined. Conservative estimates are between 350 and 750 million. Higher estimates are between 1.2 and 1.7 billion. It is also recognized as one of the fastest growing religions in the world.

Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community). Taking “refuge in the triple gem” has traditionally been a declaration and commitment to being on the Buddhist path, and in general distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist. Other practices may include following ethical precepts; support of the monastic community; renouncing conventional living and becoming a monastic; the development of mindfulness and practice of meditation; cultivation of higher wisdom and discernment; study of scriptures; devotional practices; ceremonies; and in the Mahayana tradition, invocation of buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Buddhism Rituals and Worship

Death and Rebirth

Sacred Space

The earliest example of sacred space in Buddhism is thestupa. Early accounts indicate that the Buddha’s cremated remains were first placed under a mound at a crossroads, and then removed and divided among a number of Buddhist groups (some sources say eight, some say eleven, some say twelve), each of which enshrined their portion of the relics in a stupa. According to legend, the great king Ashoka later divided these remains and distributed them to 84,000 stupas throughout his realm and beyond.

In the first centuries of Buddhist presence in South and Southeast Asia, monuments were also built to mark important moments in the Buddha’s life such as his place of birth or the location of his first sermon. Ashoka started the practice of making pilgrimage to these sites, a practice that was taken up by many of the faithful. With time, large temple complexes grew up around these stupas.

Later, stupas were also built to house the remains of famous monks, sometimes containing their cremated remains, and on rare occasions, the entire mummified body of a monk who had died while deep in meditation. Stupas were believed to radiate the presence of the person whose remains were enshrined there, as the enlightened mind was believed to continue even after the body was gone.

Eventually the stupa itself was regarded as a manifestation of the sacred, and many different types of objects were placed within them. As Buddhism expanded in South and Southeast Asia, temple complexes grew up around some of these stupas. Elaborate stone railings were built around the stupas, upon which moments in the life of the Buddha and the Jataka taleswere carved. To walk around these railings was to recreate the experience of these events, almost as if one were actually there. While the Buddha himself was no longer physically present, he was kept alive for the faithful in these sacred places.

The Great Temple at Borobudur, in Java, Indonesia, is in essence an enormous stupa that represents the cosmos. Built sometime during the 8th or 9th centuries C.E., the temple was lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in the 18th century. The base of the Great Temple is a pyramid shape, within which are five concentric square terraces. Above the base is a cone-shaped core surrounded by three circular platforms, around which are seventy-two openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha. The entire building is topped by another, larger stupa. Pilgrims circumambulate the many levels of the temple at Borobudur as an act of devotion. All along the way they encounter statues of the Buddha and stone carvings representing the stories of Buddha’s past lives from the Jataka tales, as well as reliefs that depict the operations of cause and effect. Thus a journey around Borobudur was an experience of the life and teachings of the Buddha.

In time, small, portable stupas were also created as objects of veneration or meditation. One form of Tibetan Buddhist meditation involves building a small multi-layered stupa out of sand, rock, and small metal platforms, holding the stupa in one hand while adding to it with the other. If during the process one’s stupa falls apart, one must begin again at the beginning. Japanese Buddhists once used a stupa form that they call gorinto, with one layer for each of the five elements, to create grave markers for important figures.

Another kind of sacred space in Buddhism is the mountain. There are legendary mountains such as Mount Meru, believed to be the abode of the gods, and Vulture Peak, where the Buddha was said to have preached the Lotus Sutra, and where, according to the sutra, the Buddha still resides and teaches. There are also physical mountains that have become the loci of monasteries, hermit dwellings, and shrines, and are often visited by lay Buddhists. These mountains are a meeting place between heaven and earth, and those who climb them or live upon them are believed to have access to the sacred.

Buddhist monasteries and temples throughout Asia also contain sacred spaces. That is not to say that every area within a temple complex is sacred; one might run across a flea market or a snack stand within, but there are many spaces inside that have an aura of sanctity. These might include meditation areas for monks, buildings that house statues of deities, ritual spaces, rooms in which tablets commemorating the deceased are kept, and cemeteries.

There are many characteristics that contribute to the aura of sacredness that permeates the temple complex. The architecture of the buildings is often inspiring, with brilliantly decorated ceilings, passageways, and rooftops. Most temples have at least one multi-storied pagoda with rooftop upon rooftop vaulting upward into the sky. One will see statues of deities and religious paintings in many of the buildings. Historic temples may also contain museums where one can see scrolls, paintings, statues, and ritual implements, some over a thousand years old. The temple grounds are beautifully kept and may include flower or rock gardens, small lakes, mossy forests, or stately old trees.

One of the fascinating things about Buddhist temple complexes is the number of activities that may be occurring simultaneously, some religious and some secular. One can see drifting incense and hear the sound of chanting emerging from one building, and enter another to see a statue that may be over a thousand years old. Outside one may see a group of school children on a field trip, or encounter a young couple in love on a date. There may be a souvenir stand where one can purchase good luck talismans, and another small building where a Buddhist monk will tell your fortune for a small fee. The temple complex provides a total aesthetic experience that conveys mystery, joy, playfulness, hope, solemnity, and beauty.

Rites and Ceremonies

The rituals and ceremonies of Buddhism vary from country to country, and from area to area within a country. The Chinese monk Xuanzang, who visited India in the 7th century C.E., recounted that different Buddhist sects already had quite different ritual calendars, and even celebrated events in the Buddha’s life, such as his birthday, on dates that were months apart.

In many Buddhist countries, the ritual calendar includes events that are celebrated in conjunction with other religions and/or national traditions. For example, the New Year is the biggest holiday of the year in many Asian countries, and activities last for a week or more. Traditions are followed, some specifically related to Buddhism, and others not, including a through housecleaning and settling of debts. Special foods are prepared, and some Buddhist temples will offer food to their constituents. In China it is customary for people to travel to visit their families for the holiday. On New Year’s Eve in Japan, at midnight, Buddhist temples ring the temple bell 108 times; at the larger temples, huge crowds of people will attend this event.

The Buddha’s birthday is the most widely observed Buddhist holiday, but it is celebrated on different days, with different rituals, in different countries. At some temples there will be a statue of the Buddha over which visiting devotees can pour water or a special tea. Some temples will offer a free vegetarian meal to all visitors. Buddhists may make charitable donations on this day, or they may purchase animals from slaughterhouses, release them, and provide for their welfare. In South Korea, Buddhist temples hang hundreds of paper lanterns, including some shaped like lotus flowers, throughout the temple grounds and connecting every building. Lay people make a small offering, in exchange for which the monks will write the names of the family on a merit certificate, which is then attached to a lantern. That evening, each family will seek out the lantern with their family’s certificate attached, place a candle inside, and light it, and monks and lay people alike will stroll around enjoying the beauty of the brightly lit lanterns.

Some Buddhist countries celebrate the day of the Buddha’s death and entry into nirvana, others celebrate the day of his enlightenment, and still others celebrate the day of his first sermon. Some Buddhist countries celebrate Sangha Day, which commemorates a day in the life of the historical Buddha when monks gathered to honor him. On this day, people bring food and gifts to the local temple. There may be days honoring other Buddhas or bodhisattvas, or significant Buddhists in the country’s history; or there may be holidays commemorating special days in the history of Buddhism in a particular country, such as the Sri Lankan celebration of the coming of Ashoka’s son Mahinda.

Sacred Time

Borrowing from Brahmanic religion, which taught that the universe had been created and destroyed over and over again throughout vast periods of time, early Buddhists believed that time flowed in immense cycles. Later Buddhism expanded this vision to include multiple universes, each with its own Buddha, and each universe subject to immense cycles of creation and destruction. Unless enlightened, one would be reborn again and again throughout all of these cycles.

This was samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth, and the ultimate goal of early Buddhism was to escape from samsara. The escape, called nirvana, was very different from an experience of sacred time such as one might expect in an ecstatic experience or shamanic journey. To attain nirvana was to extinguish any sense of self or individual experience; hence there was no sentient being remaining to experience a sacred time beyond ordinary time. There are two senses of nirvana: a this-worldly state when all attachments have been eliminated, and the non-state that occurs after death, when rebirth ceases.

The Buddha taught that those who occupied heavenly realms still existed in samsara, and even the gods were subject to rebirth. Even those human beings who were reborn in a Pure Land, although they were saved from future rebirths, were not free from samsara.

By the 2nd century C.E., Buddhist scholars had begun to use the Buddha’s teachings about impermanence to deconstruct the doctrine of samsara. Mahayanasutras composed at around the same time revealed new teachings, purported to be from the Buddha, about a concept called shunyata, or “emptiness.” In the Heart Sutra, for example, the Buddha was quoted as saying that when the bodhisattvaAvalokitesvara realized that the five skandhaswere all “empty,” he “passed beyond suffering and difficulty.” In other words, by understanding emptiness, he escaped samsara, just as the Buddha had done when he became enlightened.

This escape from samsara was very different, however, from that imagined by the early Buddhists. “There is no attainment whatsoever, because there is nothing to be attained,” the Heart Sutra continued. “There is no ignorance and no ending of ignorance . . . no old age and death, no ending of old age and death.” In just a few hundred words, the Heart Sutra deconstructed both the cycle of dependent arising and the path of the arhat seeking liberation from death and rebirth through the extinction of self.

The problem that led to this deconstruction was this: How did the Buddha continue to exist on earth and live the life of a human being after he was enlightened? Many solutions were offered to this problem. The basis of the Heart Sutra’s solution was the concept of emptiness. This emptiness is not the equivalent of an absence of substance. Rather, everything is empty because nothing that exists has an “inherent nature” independent of other forms of existence.

One way to understand this is to think of a balloon. Before you blow it up, it is a piece of flexible material that can be stretched this way and that. Put some air in it and it becomes much larger, but it seems lighter; it almost seems to float as you bounce it around in the air. If you fill it with helium and do not tether it, it will indeed float away. Now prick the balloon with a sharp object and a loud sound will occur, while instantly the balloon takes on yet another form — usually multiple small, flat pieces that are similar in texture and flexibility to the first form, but with a different shape.

The “form” of the balloon was not a permanent, unchanging “form.” In a matter of seconds, its form was changed several times. Placing “emptiness” into the balloon caused it to change “form,” and removing the “emptiness” resulted in a different “form.” The “emptiness” was not void of substance; it was composed of a substance that is not visible to the human eye.

Mountains are far more permanent than balloons and far more solid, but if you take a tiny piece of rock from a mountain and place it under a super high level of magnification, you will see that there is a lot of “empty” space inside it. Everything that exists is “empty” in this sense, and everything that exists also has “form.” Within every form is emptiness, and within all emptiness, form.

If “form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” as the Heart Sutra said, then, as the great 2nd- century scholar Nagarjuna argued, the categories of existence and non-existence are not meaningful. Furthermore, any boundary or differentiation between nirvana and samsara must be illusory. There is nothing to escape from, and no place to go.

These developments shifted the focus of Buddhism away from escape from the endless time that is samsara, but neither the Heart Sutra nor Nagarjuna produced a concept of sacred time. The Garland Sutras, written over the course of the next several centuries, developed the emptiness argument further by stating that if nothing exists independently of anything else, then all things must be interrelated. Everything that exists must be connected to everything else, in one unified whole. Everything is one.

Because everything is one, these sutras argued, enlightenment is accessible through immediate experience; but the imagery of the Garland Sutras, in describing the experience of this whole, was still of an “other” realm outside of ordinary experience: the Dharma Realm. It was not until Chinese Chan (in Japanese, Zen) Buddhism that the argument that enlightenment exists in the here and now was fully developed. According to Chan, nirvana is within ordinary existence. In a sense, then, all time is sacred time, because to fully experience the present moment is to experience enlightenment.

The journey of Buddhism from the concept of escape from time — from the endless cycle of death and rebirth — to the concept of enlightenment in the present moment was long and complex, and took place over hundreds of centuries of Buddhist thought and practice. In this process, sacred time was transformed from something that was beyond any experience to a characteristic of everyday life, at least for those who are able to experience the true nature of reality.